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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, May 30, 2011, Vol. 11, No. 105 | |||||||||
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| Costa Rica Expertise Ltd http://crexpertise.com E-mail info@crexpertise.com Tel:506-256-8585 Fax:506-256-7575 |
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Cemetery rites and picnic
mark Memorial Day here By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
with wire service reports American Legion Post 10 will honor late members of the organization at the San Antonio de Escazú cemetery. The legion owns a mausoleum there for its members who have passed away. The Memorial Day ceremony will be at 11 a.m. Two hours later the legion and the Marine Corps League will host a community Memorial Day picnic for the public until 5 p.m. The location is Villa Amira, a quinta next to the gas station at the entrance of Santa Ana on the old Escazú-Santa Ana Road. The veterans organizations are promising a back home-style picnic with hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad and baked beans. The admission is 6,000 colons, about $12 with a cash bar for beer. An announcement said that there was wheelchair access. For more information on the picnic and directions, those interested can call John Moran at 2232-1680, Mel Goldberg at 2288-0464, Claudio Pacheco at 8876-1394 and other members at 2243-0466 and 8312-0126. Memorial Day is a legal holiday in the United States but not in Costa Rica. So the U.S. Embassy is closed Monday, according to an announcement. In addition to honoring veterans in the United States, Memorial Day is considered the start of the summer vacation season. For Costa Rica this means another wave of tourists. Americans in the north are observing a three-day Memorial Day weekend with ceremonies, parades, sporting events and picnics. The last Monday in May of each year is designated as Memorial Day, a time to place flowers on military gravesites and honor the U.S. servicemen and women who gave their lives in service of the country. At Arlington National Cemetery near Washington and many other national cemeteries, volunteers place a small American flag on every military grave. Thousands of motorcycle riders from a nationwide group called Rolling Thunder stage a ceremonial ride into the nation's capital, to call attention to veterans' issues and to remember service members who went missing in action. Public television and radio was to broadcast a Sunday evening concert from the National Mall featuring retired Army general and former secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as other prominent public figures. Ceremonies also will be held at several of the war memorials in the nation's capital and around the country.
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, May 30, 2011, Vol. 11, No. 105 | |||||||||||
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| Coco woman loses Sala IV appeal over citizenship rule |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Sala IV constitutional court has rejected an appeal from a woman in Playas del Coco who did not want to give up her U.S. citizenship in order to become a Costa Rican citizen. The woman, identified as Leslie Zelinsky in the court decision, argued that certain foreigners can obtain citizenship without surrendering the one they currently have. She said this was discriminatory. The court took more than a year to reach a decision. Ms. Zelinsky noted that those who obtain citizenship here by marriage or because they have a child are not required to surrender their current citizenship. However, those who seek citizenship after spending the required number of years in the country have to sign a document promising to surrender their current citizenship. Ms. Zelinsky is a permanent resident with sufficient years to apply for citizenship. Ms. Zelinsky's constitutional appeal was opposed by the procurador general de la República, the country's civil lawyer, and the president of the Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones, Luis Antonio Sobrado González. The tribunal supervises the citizenship process via the Registro Civil. Ricardo Vargas Vásquez, a deputy procurador general, argued that none of the human rights treaties recognize dual nationality and that the International Court of Human Rights in a previous case agreed that nations have discretion in establishing conditions for citizenship. Sobrado told the magistrates that even though the United States does not have a dual nationality treaty, the country accepts or tolerates dual nationals in certain cases. He also said that the requirement that someone who marries a Costa Rican can seek citizenship in two years is considered to be protection for the family. |
Those who seek citizenship through
marriage or by having a child here
do not have to take a Spanish language test or tests on the history,
traditions and customs of the country. Those like Ms. Zelinsky who seek
citizenship as a result of time spent in the country have to take these
tests as well as agree to renounce their current citizenship. Sobrado said he did not think such rules were unreasonable or arbitrary and, therefore, were consistent with constitutional requirements. He urged the court to reject the appeal. The decision was written by Luis Paulino Mora Mora, who is president of the Corte Suprema de Justicia as well as a Sala IV constitutional court magistrate. He cited the regulation which said that those seeking citizenship through time in the country must renounce their current citizenship unless they are from a country that has a treaty of dual nationalities. The magistrate wrote a lengthy, exhaustive analysis of citizenship. He compared the two types of citizenship applications, derecho de sangre and derecho de suelo, right of blood or right of time in the country. The Costa Rican Constitution prohibits discrimination but does not exclude the possibility that different treatment may be afforded different situations if the differences are relevant and not arbitrary. Mora noted that even the Constitution provides different treatment. Those born in Spain and in Central America have to be residents of Costa Rica five years to apply for citizenship, but those born elsewhere have to wait seven years, the Constitution says. Many residents, based on the time they spent here, have accepted Costa Rican nationality without surrendering their U.S. citizenship. They simply sign a paper that promises that they will renounce their current citizenship. U.S. Embassy officials know about this practice, and turn a blind eye. |
| Seat belt law hits a snag, but traffic police still enforce
it |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Sala IV constitutional court has declared that the fine for not using a seat belt is disproportional and unreasonable. The vote was six to four. After the action, that was announced Friday, there are six more constitutional cases against the new traffic law. Lawmakers have spent more than a year studying the law that was passed by the previous legislature where members immediately had second thoughts. Francisco Jiménez, minister of Obras Públicas y Transportes, immediately announced Friday that police will continue to enforce the seat belt law but instead of a fine, violators would lose points on their license. They could lose the right to drive. Jiménez said his ministry was working with the legislature to produce a final traffic law. He emphasized the value of a |
seat belt to protect
motorists and passengers when there are accidents. The constitutional case was brought by a man named Hilman Salazar Ruiz. Other court appeals involve fines for talking on a cell telephone while driving, fines for excessive vehicle noise, fines for parking badly and the fine for not having a vehicle inspection sticker. All appear to be disproportional. The traffic law established a 237,000 colon fine for failing to use a seat belt. That is about $474 at the current dollar rate of exchange. The law also provides for deducting 20 points from a motorist's license. The license is suspended when the driver accumulates 50 points. Despite the law, some drivers simply drape the seat belt over their shoulder. Principal offenders are taxi drivers who spend much of the day behind the wheel. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, May 30, 2011, Vol. 11, No. 105 | |||||||||
| U.S. estimates sportsbook income here at
$12 billion a year |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The crackdown on gambling operations in Costa Rica by U.S. officials is, in part, a fight against money laundering. The 2011 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, released recently by the U.S. State Department estimates that sportsbook companies generate $12 billion here each year and employ 10,000. The estimate came before federal and state officials acted against several high-profile poker operations and forced them to close or at least reduce their U.S. operations. One was reported to be bringing $50 millioin into the country each year. The State Department also said that Costa Rican banks and financial institutions generated 304 suspicious transaction reports in 2010. Despite the number of reports, there were just nine money laundering convictions in 2010 through October. Less than $10 million was involved. In many of the cases, the action was brought after someone was caught transporting large amounts of money in a vehicle or across the national border, although the report did not report this. |
The State Department also expressed
concern about the estimated $200
million that Nicaraguans send to their home country each year, the
report said. Much of this is sent via unlicensed money remitters, and
these unregulated businesses are a significant risk for money
laundering and a potential mechanism for terrorist financing, it added. To a limited extent, money laundering/terrorist financing occurs across the formal financial sector, within the 33 free trade zones and in the non-bank financial system, the State Department said. The report noted that several pieces of property owned in Costa Rica by an associate of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolutionarias Colombian terrorist group were frozen by the U.S. Office of Foreign Asset Control, but the owner fled. Despite the problems, Costa Rica has demonstrated a genuine commitment to strengthening its anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist financing supervision and the country continues implementing new regulations directed at combating money laundering, terrorist financing, and organized crime, said the report. |
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| Government to pick up tab on auctioned off
community |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The central government is stepping in and providing 25 million colons, about $50,000 to pay off the auction price for the community of Caño Castilla. This is the community on about 300 hectares (741 acres) that was the innocent victim in a foreclosure action. Community residents prevailed at an auction last week, but they could only come up with half of the money. They had until Tuesday to raise the rest. Now the government will pay the entire amount along with some related fees. |
The community consists of some 100
dwellings and about 30 families who have lived in the area for 28 years. A trio of North Americans once owned the land, but they long since have left Costa Rica, and a creditor sought the land to settle a long-standing debt. The auction was handled by a San Carlos court. The community was inspected Thursday and Friday by the Instituto Mixto de Ayuda Social. Employees gave the thumbs up for government participation. Vice President Alfio Piva Mesén held a meeting there Saturday to deliver the news to the community. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, May 30, 2011, Vol. 11, No. 105 | ||||||||||
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| Colombia says 10,000 bodies were identified with prints By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Colombia's government has identified the remains of nearly 10,000 people who were buried in unmarked graves throughout the country, victims of decades of conflict in the South American nation between leftist rebels, right-wing militia's and government forces. Interior Minister German Vargas made the announcement during a press conference in Bogota. He says 9,969 people were identified by matching their fingerprints with those on Colombia's National Registry. Authorities say they are still trying to identify some 10,000 others but are having difficulties due to reasons including advanced stage of decomposition and lack of identification documents. Colombia's decades-long internal conflict involves government forces, right-wing paramilitary groups and leftist rebels. Ice buildup considered in Air France jet crash By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
France's aviation safety agency says the Air France flight from Rio to Paris lost key speed data and stalled three times before plummeting into the Atlantic on June 1, 2009, killing all 228 people aboard. According to information from the analysis of the flight data recorders recovered from the crash site earlier this month, the plane dropped at a speed of more than 3,000 meters a minute before crashing into the ocean. The analysis showed that the plane's speed displays appeared to malfunction, before the aircraft began its fatal plunge into the sea. The two co-pilots were flying the plane at 11,600 meters when the problems began, but the captain was out of the cockpit taking a standard rest break. He was called and returned to the flight deck, but was not at the controls when the plane crashed. A preliminary inquiry conducted prior to recovering the data recorders pointed to a possible icing problem with the probes measuring air speed. But there has been no definitive conclusion as to the cause of the crash. In an article earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported Airbus had registered 32 instances of problems involving ice buildup on similar aircraft between 2003 and 2009. In March, a French judge placed Airbus under investigation for possible involuntary manslaughter charges in the 2009 crash. Percussionists gathering for five-day festival By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The II Festival Internacional de Percusión begins a five-day run, mostly at the Teatro Nacional, Tuesday. The instruments range from marimbas, bells and drums to many others in between. There are concerts at the Teatro Nacional at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Also planned is a concert at the Teatro Municipal de Turrialba and the Gimnasio del Colegio Experimental Bilingüe de Palmares. The festival is sponsored by the Universidad Estatal a Distancia and the Instituto Nacional de Música. The closing concert will feature a work by Robert Chappell of the United States and a member of the group Panoramic. Mother facing charge of pimping her daughters By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A mother is going on trial Tuesday to face a charge that she was prostituting her two daughters since they were 7 and 10. Also on trial is a man with the last names of Zapata Pizarro. The trial will be in the Tribunal de Juicio de Aguirre y Parrita. The woman, who has the last names of Obando Villalobos, is accused of providing the girls to Zapata for four years in exchange for sums of money. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, May 30, 2011, Vol. 11, No. 105 | ||||||||||
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Latin American news Please reload page if feed does not appear promptly |
for Mexican drug suspects By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Two Mexican drug smuggling suspects will not be awaiting the remainder of the judicial process under house arrest. A judge in Pavas Friday ruled that the pair should spend four months more in prison because the security ministry cannot find a location to comply with the ruling of another judge May 10. The earlier ruling noted that the men had been in custody since Oct. 11 and that the case was not progressing rapidly. The suspects are Rubén Martinez Trujillo and Elvis Mendoza Rivera, who operated an air transport business in Pavas until one of their planes crashed because it was overloaded with cocaine. The judge's order allowing the men to await trial under house arrest angered neighbors in Moravia where the men planned to stay. The neighbors paraded in the street with signs, flags and a chain to protest the placement of the men in their community. In all, three locations were considered, and each time the plan ran into opposition. But the major opposition came form the security ministry, which said that the cost of providing round-the-clock guards for the men would be a budget buster. There also was a concern that the men were a flight risk and that possible associates from México might try to free them violently. The men's original lawyer was pulled from the case by a judge after a policeman testified that the lawyer approached him and tried to get him to change his story about how the men were arrested near the Nicaraguan line. The lawyer subsequently filed a slander case against the policemen further confusing the case, according to a report Friday. Ad rates are going up Consultantes Río Colorado S.A., the parent company of A.M. Costa Rica, announces that it will be increasing advertising rates as of June 1. The increases, between 0 and 9 percent, will affect display as well as some classified rates. Sales executives will provide existing clients full details. They also will point out that the company will stand behind advertising agreements made between now and June 1 at the current rates for a period of up to one year. The company last raised rates in 2007 and held the line for the benefit of clients during the recent recession. |
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